My Perfect Stranger, AKA Run Into You (Season 1), Episode 5 Recap & Ending, Explained: This episode had everything that one could ask for. A reveal about Hae Joon and Yoon Young’s actions, an action-filled episode, and a lot more twists and turns in the storyline to keep the viewers on edge. A few things in the episode were predictable, but it still keeps you hooked. This article contains spoilers!
My Perfect Stranger, AKA Run Into You (Season 1), Episode 5 Recap:
“A rare confession”
The episode begins with Yoon Young telling Hae Joon that if the novel written by Mi Sook is true, then two days before the murder of Ju Young, she disappears and is found by a villager, and it is considered a small event. Hae Joon asks her where the villager found her, and she says by the riverside as they join forces and looks for Ju Young; as written in the novel, she is found by the riverside. Ju Young is traumatized, and with Hae Joon’s comfort, she starts to scream, “It wasn’t me.” Hae Joon notices someone watching this scene. He chases the person down but loses momentum after hitting Dong Sik’s car, losing the culprit.
They both get into an altercation, and Dong Sik asks if Min Soo committed yet another crime. Hae Joon tells them that he does not know, and because of him, he could not catch the culprit and accuses Dong Sik of being an irresponsible police officer. He warns Dong Sik not to get in his way again. Yoon Young asked Ju Young what happened, and Hae Joon joined in. Ju Young says she has a bad sense of direction at night and pushes away any idea of being chased or threatened by anyone.
She thanks them for their concern and leaves to go home. Yoon Young worries about letting Ju Young go alone as it could be dangerous. Dong Sik was eavesdropping on their entire conversation. Hae Joon makes an excuse to buy Yoon Young breadsticks and takes her away.
With this excuse, they follow Ju Young to her home, Woojung Inn, to ensure she is safe. Hae Joon asks Yoon Young if any incident would occur that night. She says, according to the book, nothing happens, but she isn’t sure if it is completely true. She also asks Hae Joon how much he knew about the incidents occurring.
To discuss the matter further, they visit the Bong Bong Teahouse. At the entrance, Hae Joon informs Yoon Young that the previous summer, the letters to the teahouse fell because of a lightning strike. At the teahouse, Hae Joon informs Yoon Young that he has been following the case of the murders as they take place in the Bong Bong teahouse.
Upon asking if he was a detective, Hae Joon gives a clue to Yoon Young that he was on TV news during the weekends. Yoon Young assumed he was a criminal and briefly worried about her safety, but Hae Joon told her he was a news anchor. Hae Joon is shocked by the amount of information Yoon Young has about the murders, and she tells him that she is only quoting from Mi Sook’s book- a novel.
A flashback to 2021, a scene where a journalist is questioning the author Mi Sook about the spoilers for her upcoming book. She says that it is a confession of someone who had committed a perfect crime 30 years ago. In 1987, Yoon Young revealed to Hae Joon that she was an editor for Mi Sook, and in the book Mi Sook writes that the real culprit was never found. This information astonishes Hae Joon. Mi Sook is enjoying her brother’s absence from her home. She chuckles wickedly, knowing precisely what she is going to do.
Yoon Young asks Hae Joon if the culprit is Mi Sook and was the culprit not found. Hae Joon informs her that they found a culprit, but he denies the allegations until the end. Yoon Young realizes that Mi Sook’s first novel was stolen from her mother, and this particular novel was her actual life story. They get into a feud about knowing for sure if Mi Sook is the culprit or not. Hae Joon asks her why she wants Mi Sook to be the culprit, especially because she knows her. Yoon Young says that’s the exact reason she thinks Mi Sook is the murderer because the Mi Sook she knows is very capable of being a murderer.
In the same teahouse, Soon Ae and Hee Seop are present. Soon Ae loudly asks Hee Seop if he just asked her to marry him. Yoon Young overhears this and starts hitting Hee Seop, and Hee Seop refuses to say anything about marriage. Soon Ae tells him that she is already dating someone, shocking both Hee Seop and Yoon Young. Soon Ae also gives back a red rose to Hee Seop, saying she does not like flowers. Hae Joon needs clarification about the situation, not understanding what is happening between them.
As Yoon Young runs out of the teahouse to look for Soon Ae, Hae Joon stops her and questions her about what he has witnessed. He confesses, saying she was Soon Ae and Hee Seop’s daughter. Hae Joon realizes that Yoon Young is the daughter of one of the suspects in the murders, Hee Seop. At the Inn, Ju Young is seen informing someone on the phone that she is terrified of living in that village. She also asks the other person on the line if someone here knows about her. She had received a red rose and a note that read, “Someone is watching you.”
Hae Joon and Yoon Young were on their doorstep when Yoon Young asked Hae Joon if he was still confused about the situation he witnessed at the teahouse. He asks her if it is about family. She then tells him she wants to separate them, stopping them from getting married. This angers Hae Joon. He asks her if she is a fool, not realizing that if she did that, Yoon Young wouldn’t exist, to which Yoon Young responds by saying she didn’t care about that.
She explains to him her feelings towards her mother’s pain and death, and the one thing she wished on the day she died was to go back in time and change things. Listening to this, Hae Joon tells Yoon Young to return home and rest. She enters the house to see the flickering lights fixed and regrets not asking Hae Joon about the Bong Bong Teahouse matchboxes. Hae Joon is trying to piece the whole puzzle together.
The next morning Hae Joon takes Yoon Young to the riverside and tells her that at night a murder will take place, and she will see an item she will recognize. He shows her Bong Bong Teahouse matchbox that has a note which reads, “Women who read are dangerous,” the same note that Yoon Young finds after her mother’s death. They are confused about, after three murders in 1987, why did another box show up and the murder took place in 2021.
He tells her that this was the signature of the murderer to leave this box with a note, as the same item was found after the second murder. Moreover, he tells her she should try to save her mother until the last moment, especially if she has seen the murderer’s face. He also gets vulnerable by saying that he never knew a mother’s love. But he knew that this many individuals who loved each other would always know that Soon Ae adored Yoon Young and would never commit suicide.
In school, Soon Ae apologizes for not telling Yoon Young about the date with Hee Seop, Yoon Young hugs Soon Ae and tells her that she will protect her no matter what happens. Mi Sook sees this and questions a classmate as to what they were doing, and the classmate says report cards were out and maybe Soon Ae got fewer marks. Mi Sook smiles and goes to her seat. Ju Young comes to the staffroom to talk to Hae Joon but is interrupted by the Chairman. Hae Joon tells her that he hasn’t said anything about the incident with her to anyone and leaves her be.
The results were put up on the board, and Soon Ae topped her class. As Soon Ae and Yoon Young celebrated, Mi Sook and Hae Kyung exchanged glances at each other. Mi Sook realizing she didn’t top the class, walks away. Hae Kyung belittles Soon Ae for topping the class, and one of the professors rushes to stop her from bullying, but she runs away. Hee Seop is standing by the notice board when Bum Ryung walks by.
He asks Hee Seop if his date did not go well and his flower trick did not work on her. Hee Seop recalls the time before they went on their dates when he had plucked white flowers to give Soon Ae but Bun Ryung gave the red rose, asking him to give it to his date. He tells Bum Ryung. Hee Seop asks Bum Ryung about his date. He says that his girlfriend always says that she hates flowers, but he interprets it as she likes them. He asks him what he did with the other red rose. Bum Ryung looks towards Ju Young and says he also used that rose.
Hae Kyung enters late in the classroom by holding onto her leg in pain. Meanwhile, Yoon Young keeps an observant eye on Mi Sook. As she watches her, she thinks about Hae Joon’s reasoning about why Mi Sook cannot be suspected yet. He tells her that the man he chased down the day Ju Young was followed was wearing a blue cap. The distance between Ju Young’s Inn and Bong Bong Teahouse was very close. And in the teahouse, the night she got murdered, the hotel staff saw her argue with a man who was wearing a blue cap.
He asked Yoon Young to trust and give him some time, and he would not let anyone die in 1987 or 2021. As Yoon Young is following Ju Young, Hae Joon stops her, gives her Jelly, and asks her to go home with her mother and uncle, and he will make sure Ju Young will reach home safely.
At the police station, Dong Sik recalls every detail of that night and rushes out to check on Ju Young. Outside, he meets fellow officers and tells them that a new teacher has joined, and things aren’t looking good. They told him that she was convicted three times, and they were ignoring it.
The next morning as they walk to school, Yoon Young reminds Hae Joon that the murder would occur that night. He says that it would if nothing else came up. At that moment, they see police cars arrive. Hae Joon goes up to Dong Sik and asks him what he is doing here and that he wasn’t there to help Ju Young. Dong Sik says Hae Joon would have died because of her and instructs the other cops to chase her down.
By then, Ju Young had seen the cops and made a run for it. Seeing Ju Young run, Yoon Young chases her. Yoon Young catches up to Ju Young, who was trying to buy a bus ticket to Seoul to escape from the cops. As Yoon Young tries to calm her, Hae Joon catches up to them, fearing for her life. Ju Young threatens to hurt Yoon Young with a knife, saying they were spies who wanted to hand her over to the police. As Hae Joon tried to explain the misunderstanding, police sirens were heard. Hae Joon asks the owner if they could hide somewhere, and he shows them a closet. They don’t give out any information to the police.
In the closet, Hae Joon tells them they are in this mess because of his one wrong judgment. Yoon Young tells him that sending her to the inn that night would be dangerous, and Hae Joon agrees that she should be taken to a safer place. Ju Young breaks down, saying she is all alone and scared. Hae Joon visits the Bong Bong Teahouse that night, hoping to see the culprit’s face.
He tells Yoon Young that he was hoping to see the culprit even without Ju Young being present at the location. Yoon Young requests him to get a glimpse of the culprit’s face as he would be the one to kill her mother 34 years later. The episode ends with a person wearing a blue cap in Bong Bong Teahouse. The person wearing the blue cap is Hee Seop.
My Perfect Stranger, AKA Run Into You (Season 1), Episode 5 Ending, Explained:
This episode primarily focused on Hae Joon and Yoon Young, revealing their reasons for being in 1987, their intentions, and their relationships with each character. This was one of those shows that solved an issue but confused the viewers even more. As established before, the primary suspects were Hee Seop, Bum Ryung, and Min Soo. The previous episodes established why Min Soo should be suspected of the murders. But this episode gave many reasons for each of these characters to be suspected.
First, Mi Sook’s novel makes her suspicious of the murders. Hee Seop showing up in the last scene of the episode wearing a blue cap makes him the most suspicious of them all. Bum Ryung’s sadistic facial expression as he informs Hee Seop about the other rose he gave Ju Young makes him suspicious. There is also a scene in the Inn where Ju Young speaks to someone on the phone. A note and a red rose are shown, making it seem like the same rose Bum Ryung had given her.
The story is going to take an interesting turn from here on. What seemed like a mystery being solved with everything going according to plan has come to a hard standstill. Will Hae Joon be able to take the necessary actions after seeing Hee Seop in the teahouse, knowing he is Yoon Young’s father? Will Ju Young be spared from dying? What did Mi Seok’s words during their field trip mean when she thought Ju Young would be her first victim? What will Yoon Young decide to do after discovering that Hee Seop might be the culprit? If Mi Sook is not the culprit, what is her story, the reasons for her evil nature? We will have to keep watching to find out more.
